UPDATED: Senate vote on abortion bill rescheduled to Feb. 22

Edited to reflect change in Senate schedule!

The New Hampshire Senate will vote Wednesday, February 22 on SB 181, a bill to declare abortion “vital to the liberty and equality of all individuals” and to put it beyond the reach of state regulation.

This is a rescheduled vote due to a forecast winter storm. The vote had originally been scheduled for February 23.

The Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 along party lines (Republicans in the majority) to recommend an “inexpedient to legislate” (ITL) vote on the bill. If the ITL recommendation is accepted by the Senate, the bill will die.

Action item: contact your state senator (see “Who’s My Senator?” from the General Court website) and request SUPPORT for the committee recommendation of “inexpedient to legislate” on SB 181.

While the sponsor of SB 181 has assured her colleagues that SB 181 would leave the Fetal Life Protection Act untouched, she failed to note that a separate bill is in the works to repeal FLPA. If SB 181 is passed and FLPA is repealed, New Hampshire will return to being a state where the elective direct intentional termination of human life is available on demand throughout pregnancy.

For coverage of the committee hearing on SB 181, see this blog’s January 31 post.

Seven other life-issue bills are pending in the House Judiciary Committee, which held hearings last week. A committee vote has not yet been scheduled.